An exploration of the consequences of democratic politics in Mexico. Focusing on struggles at the subnational level, the author assesses how increased electoral competition alters the long-term distribution of power across political instituions in ways that shift power away from established elites.

"Examines organization, leadership and changes within Mexico's historic pro-democratic opposition parties, the Partido Acción Nacional and the Partido de la Revolución Democrática. Explores the implications for overall party organization and the future of Mexico's democratic experiment"--Provided by publisher.

Throughout the twentieth century, much of the population in Latin America lacked access to social protection. Since the 1990s, however, social policy for millions of outsiders - rural, informal, and unemployed workers and dependents - has been expanded dramatically. Social Policy Expansion in Latin America shows that the critical factors driving expansion are electoral competition for the vote of outsiders and social mobilization for policy change. The balance of partisan power and the involvement of social movements in policy design explain cross-national variation in policy models, in terms of benefit levels, coverage, and civil society participation in implementation. The book draws on in-depth case studies of policy making in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico over several administrations and across three policy areas: health care, pensions, and income support. Secondary case studies illustrate how the theory applies to other developing countries.

Tracing the key themes and dynamics of a century of political development in Mexico, David Shirk explores the evolution of the party that ultimately became the vehicle for Fox's success.

This volume offers an overview of party politics in Mexico, with a special focus on the 1997 mid-term congressional elections. In Mexico the three main political parties have led the advances towards democratic governability. Chapters on the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional), the PAN (Partido Acción Nacional) and PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática) examine the responses of these three leading parties to changing electoral challenges. As competition for the vote increased, these parties have been forced to adapt and to introduce changes in their organization. These changes have had wider implications for the development of the party system. In consequence, this volume is more than the study of leading competing parties in Mexico. It also analyses the behaviour of the Mexican electorate and the changing institutional setting that underpins both the nature of political parties and the patterns of competition and co-operation.

When Mexico's authoritarian Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI) was defeated in the 2000 presidential election after seventy-one years of uninterrupted rule, many analysts believed the party would inevitably splinter and collapse. An authoritarian party without control over government resources and without a strong national executive creates both opportunity and incentive for ambitious politicians to leave the party and join a separate faction. To the surprise of many, however, the PRI managed to deviate from this pattern, and returned triumphantly to the presidency in 2012. Democratization and Authoritarian Party Survival: Mexico's PRI argues that those authoritarian parties that survive the transition to democratic elections do so because they are able to adjust to electoral challenges and the rigors of the ballot box more quickly and effectively than their internal party rivals. Such as in the case of the PRI, these electorally-oriented vote winners find ways to cooperate and avoid the dangers of internal ruptures. Those authoritarian parties in which vote-winning factions are unable to defeat their intra-party rivals, or those that divide and fragment, are less likely to survive the transition to democratic voting. Despite the interest in Mexico's former hegemonic party and its return to power, no full-length monograph has been dedicated to studying its transformation. This book takes a long lens view of authoritarian party survival and zeros in on the transformation of Mexico's PRI, making a substantive and novel contribution to the wider literature on party organizational change, authoritarian party survival, and democratization.